Come and connect

We gather for worship and conversation every Wednesday @5:15pm in the MIT Chapel. After worship we eat dinner together, usually a home cooked meal served in the dining room in W11. For more information, contact the Rev. Andrew Heisen. (See contact information below.)

Join our list

Our weekly email is our main way of sharing what’s going on at LEM. Subscribe here to get plugged in.

Taize comes to us!

Happy Lent! I hope that you have been enjoying the daily devotions on Intent. The multitude of perspectives has been powerful and challenged some of my well-worn patterns. I also like the surprise each morning of seeing what medium (or media) the reflection uses. We and our colleagues are diversely talented.

Worship will be at the normal time: Wednesday at 5:15 PM. We are still in the Chapel. I missed last week, so I can’t tell you whether the wind-tunnel sound effect is a permanent addition based on Saarinen’s original vision. My take from the week we were in the Chapel is that the interior was not much different from the original vision (with the exception of the wind-tunnel sound effects). I understand the moat needed to be sealed to prevent flooding chaplains’ offices, but the only new thing inside is some lights as far as I can tell. Dinner will follow around 6:30 in the Main Dining Room of W11. It will still be delicious.

If you have joined us for worship since at least IAP, we have been singing Taizé chants as our offertory hymns. These chants come from the contemplative worship developed and practiced by the monks of the Taizé community in France. Every year hundreds (if not thousands) of young adults make a pilgrimage to Taizé to immerse themselves in prayer and song. This year, some brothers are making a pilgrimage to us! The brothers will be at MIT on Saturday, April 11. If you want to make a pilgrimage but France is too far, you can join a group organized by Trinity Church, Copley Square, and worship with the brothers in the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York City.

If you are a current student at MIT, please take two seconds to click on this link and confirm that you are a member of LEM. To keep our standing with ASA, we need at least five people to do this. Thanks for your help! Also, if you are already planning to go to the ASA General Body Meeting on Wednesday, I would be happy to let you serve as the proxy for LEM. Let me know so that I can check the right boxes in the on-line database.

Support Our Ministry

We are grateful for the support of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and the New England Synod of the ELCA. We also rely on alumni and friends for a great deal of our funding. Do you want to help provide spiritual formation, a strong community, and healthy meals to students at MIT?

Yes! I want to make a contribution to the Lutheran Chaplaincy at MIT.

Yes! I want to make a contribution to the Episcopal Chaplaincy at MIT.

Lutheran Chaplin

Rev. Andrew C. Heisen
617-999-9796
heisen@mit.edu

Pastor Andrew Heisen (he/him) has been serving as the Lutheran (ELCA) chaplain at MIT since 2019. He grew up in New York and New England, spending six summers working on staff at Calumet Lutheran Camp in Ossippee, NH. He attended Dartmouth College, graduating with degrees in music composition and computer sciennce. This led to four years of working in Johnson & Johnson’s IT “Advanced Technology Research” division and two years as a bartender before attending the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and then Andover Newton Theological School, from which he received a Master’s Degree in Divinity. Before becoming a chaplain at MIT, Pastor Heisen served for seven years as pastor in Shrewsbury, MA, where he now lives with his wife and two children. His interests include ecumenical and interfaith cooperation, creativity in fostering communities of faith, teaching, spiritual discernment, music, and social justice.

Episcopal Chaplain

Rev. Kevin Vetiac
kvet246@mit.edu

Kevin Vetiac (he/they) is a Boston native with years of ministerial and higher education experience. Kevin graduated from the Boston University School of Theology with a Master of Divinity degree. Recently ordained a transitional deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Kevin has a big heart for ecumenical ministry and college chaplaincy. Kevin also has a deep love for music and served as the Music Director of The Crossing at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Downtown Boston for six years. Kevin also served as the Cathedral Administrator for three years. Kevin is thrilled to join the Lutheran Episcopal Ministry at MIT and looks forward to continuing the work of creating inclusive and liberating Christian spaces for college students.